discussion about swearing/rules regarding swearing

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tsk tsk now he's making faces back at her

What you gonna do about it kiddo?

Cornflake, my point was just that there are rules about swearing, but they're not enforced like they are on other forums I visit. Makes no sense to me. Either A. Have rules and enforce them (as other forums do) or B. don't bother writing rules. WP's bizarre approach is C. Write rules but then don't enforce them.

Since the rules do exist, the logical thing to do would be to either: A. start enforcing them, or B. Admit they're a farcical pretense, and delete them. However, WP prefers to: C. Make lame excuses about why the swearing rule "can't" be enforced but the other rules can.

I'm only making observations. Don't worry; I'm not actually expecting anyone to DO anything about it.

Apart from the grey areas already discussed everyone already knows what swearing is. No one needs to go and check a list to find out if the F word and the sh word and calling people certain insults such as b@stard or c2nt or @sshole is OK. They all know it's not. But they're doing it anyway - because they can. It ought to be dealt with by the moderators as on other sites - by dealing out infractions, temporary bans, and permanent bans for re-offenders. They are not doing any of those things right now for violations of the "no swearing" rule. They're big on jumping on "personal attacks" and stomping them out but not the swearing. They're occasionally deleting posts containg swearwords, but not banning anyone. Doing nothing but an occasional bit of editing sends a clear message to offenders: "you can do this again. " Hence they do.

BTW Cornflake I don't know what you were on about when you talked about "areas of the website designated specifically for children." ALL of this website (with the exception of the Adult section) is open to minors and viewable by children and the mods know that very well, so stop pretending you don't. Everything you've said contradicts the actual rules, which I've quoted earlier on the thread for reference. Mods are supposed to follow the set rules, not make up their own.

Anyway this pointless discussion has been going on for too long now so I'm going to back out now.

*comes back from checking another thread*

Classic example: over in the "attractive features in women" thread (viewable by children) we have:

I think it's about time we held another tea party or sausage & chips evening here in the unpopular WP members thread. Anyone feel the same way?

Is that a tactful way of saying: "all_white, shut up about it now"?



*submits to subject change*

Will there be a vegetarian option?

all_white, I intended to write a reasoned and lengthy reply addressing your points as best as I was able but it appears there is no point, considering what you've ignored in my previous post and what you've since added.
It's absolutely clear that nothing short of disallowing every single word that you regard as offensive or a swearword would be acceptable and where necessary, banning people who use them from accessing WP at all.

I dislike emotional appeals such as "Won't someone please think of the children!?" but unfortunately, that is exactly what you're doing.
And no; you're not just asking for the rules to be enforced. It goes further than that.

You believe "hell" to be a swearword. You believe, on the strength of a child's comment, that "crap" is also a swearword. Therefore, both of these words should apparently be disallowed.
It is not possible to accommodate such views in written rules that are capable of being implemented and like it or not, that is every bit as true for very many of the other words you regard as swearwords.

As I said earlier, the day someone creates definitions of "swearword" or "offensive" which work across continents and cultures alike, and offend no-one through their implementation in rules of conversation - will be the day when rules about swearing or offensiveness make sense and become fully functional.
You are asking for black and white rules to govern a whole range of grey shades.

I have attempted to show you that we do the best we can, without being accused of nannying people, yet that's not enough.
If you'd like to PM me about any aspect of this subject I would be more than willing to continue it.

And that was a tactful way of saying "yes."

Well, I vote for pizza. My medical conditions mean I can only eat certain foods. Some "virtual" pizza would make a yummy change.

It's OK, Cornflake. Like I said I was only making observations. I know by now nothing will be done about it. I already had fruitless PM exchanges with someone (I think it was TallyMan) back when the Clean Chat thread was born. BTW I wasn't saying "will someone please think of the children?" I was saying: "will somebody other than me please think of the rules?" Not MY rules, as you falsely imply. Alex's rules. The "Conduct" rules published on this website. The ones that aren't being enforced.

And nobody was saying hell and crap were swearwords. We were discussing the grey area they fell into, which may depend on upbringing or nationality, but which does not affect words such as f**k, b***h, a**hole, etc that are universally offensive but do not get moderated here as per stated rules. Stop misquoting me, please, and go back and read.

I honestly think (and I'm not the only one) that if the mods are going to carry on picking and choosing which rules they fancy enforcing, they should delete the ones they don't. Otherwise it makes them look daft.

We now have pizza on the menu

greetings.
It appears there's, um, a discussion...
hope all is well.